Chapter 796: Antidote [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]
Asher stood over the huge corpse of the Grave-class Lizardfolk. He stared at it in silence for a moment before he shook his head and tore his eyes away from it, his purple gaze scanning the surroundings, over a kilometre reduced to nothing but utter ruins.
’Where did the Fang-class Lizardfolks among their clan go?’ Asher thought to himself.
He had only seen the Viel-class, Mark-class, and then the Grave-class Lizardfolks. After thinking about it for a moment, Asher chose to forget about it. Maybe the Fang-class amongst their ranks had gone hunting for food, or perhaps they didn’t have any Fang-class Lizardfolks amongst them to begin with.
Asher stared at his own body, then shook his head. To him, even a beggar was cleaner than he was at this point. As he was lost in useless thoughts, his mind seemed to remind him why he was here in the first place.
’Oh yeah, the cave,’ Asher thought to himself. ’Hopefully it hasn’t been destroyed during the battle.’
He sighed, then vanished from where he stood as he shot towards the cave’s direction.
Although he didn’t exactly know what was inside, Asher guessed it was some sort of Positive Zone. After all, why would the creators of the Inter-Empire Competition place a Negative Zone in such a location where even third-year students couldn’t enter without working together to eliminate the Grave-class Monster?
’Speaking of working together, I wonder if two people work together to deal with a Monster, would the points be split between them, or would they simply go to the person who landed the final blow?’ Asher thought to himself as he moved.
Although he didn’t know the answer, he didn’t particularly care. After all, it wasn’t like he planned to work together with anyone.
Within seconds, he arrived at the location of the cave, and to his surprise, the cave had withstood the destruction wrought by Asher and the Lizardfolk. Without wasting any more time, Asher stepped inside. The cave was dark, far too dark, as not a shred of light permeated the place. But Asher could see regardless. He simply channeled Star Energy into his eyes, and the darkness parted as though it didn’t exist.
An announcement tore through the silent air the moment Asher walked in, causing him to pause in his steps.
"An unknown Player has entered a designated Positive Zone. The Zone Function is as follows: provision of poisonous air antidote."
Hearing this, Asher relaxed as his eyes landed on what seemed to be a syringe containing a white liquid lying on the floor as though it were some discarded item.
Asher couldn’t help but shake his head at the scene, wondering how normal students were supposed to locate this antidote if they couldn’t see in the dark to begin with. Asher lowered himself and picked it up. After looking at it for a moment, he let out a small laugh as he read something amusing.
On the body of the syringe were carved a few words: duration of five hours.
What made Asher laugh was that the carved writing was so small that one had to practically study the syringe to find it. It seemed that although the Positive Zones were meant to help, they didn’t provide a full advantage, or rather, this particular one didn’t.
Asher could already guess that the swamp was filled with numerous Monsters and Beasts, and if this Positive Zone granted an antidote that lasted four whole days, then students might never leave, and no other student would enter because of the poisonous air.
If any random student had found the antidote, they might have simply used it, oblivious to the time limit, and they would later have no choice but to destroy their own bracelet and escape out of fear of dying.
Without hesitating, Asher removed the needle cap and inserted the needle into his vein as though he were a medical doctor. He pushed down the plunger, and the liquid immediately entered his bloodstream.
Asher had thought about simply holding onto the antidote until he could no longer breathe before using it, but then he decided against it. Since the creators had left this cave here, then surely there were other places like it, each containing batches of antidotes.
But anyway, it wasn’t like he planned to stay here for the entire four days. He would simply explore for a bit and leave.
Asher felt the effects of the antidote almost immediately, and with that, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with oxygen. Although holding one’s breath might seem easy, it wasn’t. He had been holding his breath for almost two hours now while also fighting and running around.
With that, he threw away the empty syringe and walked out of the cave. He expertly jumped onto the topmost part of the cave and sat down. Although it was hard since it was made of rock, at least it was dry. With that, he gazed at his bracelet, eager to check his point balance. A grin immediately appeared across his lips the moment he saw it. At the moment, he had a total of sixteen thousand one hundred (16,100) points.
The leap in points was literally insane.
Prior to visiting this Lizardfolk territory, he had been sitting in first place with three thousand five hundred (3,500) points. Now, he had more than four times that number.
His mind immediately went into its mathematical mode as he tried to analyze how many points he had gained.
He had counted thirty Viel-class Monsters, each of which gave him one hundred and twenty (120) points, bringing that total to three thousand six hundred (3,600). Then he killed five Mark-class Monsters, which seemed to have gained him five thousand five hundred (5,500) points, meaning he received one thousand one hundred (1,100) points per head. Then finally, the Grave-class Monster had granted him a whopping three thousand five hundred (3,500) points.
All these numbers combined together resulted in sixteen thousand one hundred (16,100) points.
Truly, he had gained a lot.
Asher immediately decided to check out the rankings and see how far everyone was progressing.
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Qualifiers Round Ranking
1/ Asher Wargrave / 16,100 Points / Zarethorne
2/ Arianna Haellight / 2,700 Points / Velkarin
3/ Isaac Wrath Chillstorm / 2600 Points / Thalvorn
4/ Thalric Wargrave / 2600 Points / Zarethorne
5/ Teo Swig / 2550 Points / Zarethorne
6/ Acker Holloway / 2500 Points / Vandross
7/ Zis Zaitsu / 2300 Points / Velkarin
8/ Catherine Shatterdust / 2300 Points / Thalvorn
9/ Theodore Elox / 2100 Points / Vandross
10/ Hilton Zarik / 1800 Points / Thalvorn
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The list had changed greatly, to say the least.
Asher was ahead of second place by almost six times their point total, which was an absolutely insane gap.
Almost everyone who had been on the list was still there. Everyone was gaining points slowly, as it seemed they were all still encountering mostly Viel-class Monsters at the moment.
Asher noticed that Finch’s name had vanished from the top ten rankings. He wasn’t surprised. He knew that Finch had disappeared from the rankings because he had chosen to unlock his Astra Energy immediately.
Which was a smart move. After all, he wasn’t as strong as all the people within the rankings.
They could afford to delay. But Finch couldn’t.
